The most malign of all these dangers today is disregard and disobedience
of law. Crime is increasing. Confidence in rigid and speedy justice is
decreasing. I am not prepared to believe that this indicates any decay
in the moral fiber of the American people. I am not prepared to believe
that it indicates an impotence of the Federal Government to enforce its
laws.
It is only in part due to the additional burdens imposed upon our
judicial system by the eighteenth amendment. The problem is much wider
than that. Many influences had increasingly complicated and weakened our
law enforcement organization long before the adoption of the eighteenth
amendment.
To reestablish the vigor and effectiveness of law enforcement we
must critically consider the entire Federal machinery of justice, the
redistribution of its functions, the simplification of its procedure,
the provision of additional special tribunals, the better selection
of juries, and the more effective organization of our agencies of
investigation and prosecution that justice may be sure and that it may
be swift. While the authority of the Federal Government extends to but
part of our vast system of national, State, and local justice, yet
the standards which the Federal Government establishes have the most
profound influence upon the whole structure.
We are fortunate in the ability and integrity of our Federal judges
and attorneys. But the system which these officers are called upon to
administer is in many respects ill adapted to present-day conditions.
Its intricate and involved rules of procedure have become the refuge of
both big and little criminals. There is a belief abroad that by invoking
technicalities, subterfuge, and delay, the ends of justice may be
thwarted by those who can pay the cost.
Reform, reorganization and strengthening of our whole judicial and
enforcement system, both in civil and criminal sides, have been
advocated for years by statesmen, judges, and bar associations.
First steps toward that end should not longer be delayed. Rigid and
expeditious justice is the first safeguard of freedom, the basis of all
ordered liberty, the vital force of progress. It must not come to be in
our Republic that it can be defeated by the indifference of the citizen,
by exploitation of the delays and entanglements of the law, or by
combinations of criminals. Justice must not fail because the agencies
of enforcement are either delinquent or inefficiently organized. To
consider these evils, to find their remedy, is the most sore necessity
of our times.